Mom wanted, boyfriend charged in young brothers’ drownings

Wildline Joseph, mother of two drowned sons, grieves after they were pulled from a pool at their North Lauderdale apartment complex

Two brothers, 5 and 6, had been submerged in a pool for nearly two hours before a relative found them and began a futile attempt to revive the boys with CPR, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said three months after their drowning deaths.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the boys’ mother, Wildline Joseph, whose whereabouts currently are unknown, Veda Coleman-Wright, a sheriff’s spokeswoman, said Thursday.

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Charges have been filed against Joseph’s 24-year-old boyfriend John Louis Lynn Jr. He is charged with two counts of aggravated manslaughter of a child for the deaths of Branario Minto, 5, and Ja’Kye Joseph, 6, in a North Lauderdale pool, court records show.

Lynn, of Tamarac, was arrested Tuesday and was being held on bonds totaling $500,000 for the manslaughter charges but is being held without bond because of unrelated charges he’s also facing.

“Detectives said Lynn failed to provide proper care and supervision for the brothers, which made him responsible for their deaths,” Coleman-Wright said.

Wildline Joseph, mother of two drowned sons, ages 5 and 6, stands with John Lynn the day after the brothers were pulled from a pool at their North Lauderdale apartment complex (Joe Cavaretta)

About 9:30 p.m. May 22, family members found Branario and Ja’Kye submerged in the community pool at the Silver Palms Condominiums, at 1200 SW 52nd Ave. They pulled the unresponsive boys from the water, began CPR and called 911.

North Lauderdale Fire Rescue took the brothers to Northwest Medical Center in Margate where they were pronounced dead.

Detectives believe the boys may have climbed over the fence to reach the pool in the apartment complex south of West Atlantic Boulevard, between South State Road 7 and Florida’s Turnpike.

“Investigators said surveillance video shows the victims unsupervised and running to the pool area at approximately 7:16 p.m.,” the sheriff’s office said.

The 911 call came in at 9:33 p.m., Coleman-Wright said.

John Louis Lynn Jr., 24, is facing two charges of aggravated manslaughter of a child, in the drowning deaths of brothers Branario Minto, 5, and Ja’Kye Joseph, 6, in North Lauderdale, court records show. (Broward Sheriff's Office)

Lynn is not the biological father of either boy but was living with their mother at the time. Lynn and Joseph are the parents of at least one of two other children who were also living in the home, investigators said.

It’s unclear where Joseph was while her sons were drowning. “If I was there, I could have saved them,” she told reporters at the time.

The family has a history with the child welfare system, investigators said. The Broward Sheriff’s Office Child Protective Investigations Section removed the brothers’ 4-month-old and 1-year-old siblings from their home in May as part of the investigation.